


Family History

by sassenachwaffles



Series: Waffs: DOA Timeline [6]
Category: Outlander (TV)
Genre: F/M, fluff and some feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 10:55:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13856361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassenachwaffles/pseuds/sassenachwaffles
Summary: Jamie gives Bree a little lesson on her Fraser history.





	1. Late Night Talks

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what this is but uh, well, it’s now a thing. I’m rather apprehensive about this fic, and I’m not sure why. Shout out to @kkruml for being the best cheerleader and beta through this fic. A special thank you to Two Henry’s Hard Strawberry Cider for also giving me enough cojones to press the publish button.

He couldn’t sleep— for once it wasn’t a nightmare that had woken him, but rather the faint cry of a baby somewhere off in the distance.

His grandson had been wrapped around his little finger from the moment he had laid eyes on him. Jamie quietly slid out of bed, pulling the sheets up over his wife’s sleeping body and silently walked out of the room.

He walked through the house to look for his daughter and grandson, not finding them inside, he meandered to the porch. Jamie found Bree sitting on a bench, Jem cuddled tightly to her chest. He stopped and watched them in the doorframe for a moment.

The red hair of his daughter flowing over her shoulders with her mother’s curls. Jamie mused to himself for a moment- Claire was always telling him that Bree was the spitting image of him and Fraser genetics, and while he did have to admit there was a very strong resemblance, he would catch their daughter in moments just like this, and see a flicker of Claire in her. She was just as much her mother as she was a Fraser— reminding him of the woman he had fallen in love with all those years ago.

“Did the bairn not want to go to sleep?” He said softly as he walked to join her on the bench.

“He was having some gas and I was the one who couldn’t sleep. Figured I could come watch the stars out here while I tried to get him down again.” Bree said as she wrapped Jem a little tighter in his blanket. “You couldn’t sleep either?”

“Och. No I couldna sleep.” Jamie said placing a kiss to Bree’s forehead. “Give the wee one to me?”

“Sure my arms are asleep.” Bree asked passing Jem into his arms. “Is mama still asleep?”

“She didna even know I left, she was verra tired and was sleeping like a rock when I got out of bed.” Jamie said, cradling the entire length of Jem’s body in one of his arms.

“Why couldn’t you sleep?” Bree asked, resting her head on Jamie’s shoulder.

He took a deep breath, calculating his thoughts and pin pointing what to tell her.

“Did yer mam ever tell ye about my family?” Jamie asked, quietly into the curls atop Bree’s head.

“A little. Mostly that your parents married when no one else wanted them to, which is why you had Lallybroch. And that you had a brother named Willie who died when you were young. Other than that, all I know is Aunt Jenny and Uncle Ian and all my cousins. Not much else.” Bree said, answering his questions.

He sat silently, watching the stars, listening to the sounds of the wind breeze through the ridge.

“Tonight I was thinking of my parents. I was dreaming about them… Good things but I just couldna go back to sleep.” Jamie muttered. “I’ll tell ye about them, if ye’d like to hear yer Fraser history.”

He smiled as Bree sat right up turning to face him. “I would love to hear it, if you want to stay up for a bit to talk.”

Jamie nodded taking his hand free of holding Jem and trailing it down the contours of Bree’s face. “Ye have probably heard from no’ just me and yer Aunt Jenny, Murtagh as well, ye are the spitting image of my mam.”

“So I’ve been told and seen, by the portrait of her. She was beautiful.” Bree responded, Jamie could see the faint blush of her cheeks. 

He chuckled to himself, wishing his mother could be here to see her grandchild- her great grandchild- but he knew she was watching over them.

“Aye, lass. Weel, it was the night of the Gathering. My Da was standing in a corner, talking amongst some of the clansmen. My mam, was off in the middle of the floor, talking to another lad that wanted to court her. My Da just walked up to her, interjected himself between my mam and the other lad, and. Well, he said they talked for a long period. They talked about their siblings and parents and how they wanted to do things differently, to not be like their siblings or their parents—to make their own mark on this world. By the end of the conversation, he knew she was the one he ha’ wanted to spend the rest of his life with. My mam, well, she was already promised to another man. So she told him they had to elope, otherwise they wouldna be able to get marrit.” He stopped, running his hand over Jem’s head. “They ran away together. Stayed in a small cottage on some outlying lands, away from both the Mackenzie’s and Fraser’s. They stayed there, until my mam was very pregnant with my brother, Willie. By then, no one could deny that my Da was the father.”

“It sounds almost like a Romeo and Juliet tragedy.” Bree said, resting her head back onto Jamie’s chest.

“Aye, lass. Tis true. They got married under the entry way to Lallybroch, about a week before Willie was born.”

“My uncle.” Bree whispered.

“Yes. He was…..I wanted to be just like him. I wonder if I make him proud.” Jamie pleaded.

“Da, I think you do. I think…. I think all of them would be proud. Grannie, Grandda, and Uncle Willie.” Bree said quietly, as she looked up and kissed Jamie’s cheek.

“How did my grandsire know that she was the one?” Bree asked and Jamie could feel the smile on her face as she spoke.

Jamie laughed at himself- memories of the first time he saw Claire filling his mind. “He said he just knew…. Like he knew the sun would set and rise the next day. It’s how I knew yer mam was the one. Just like he had said, that when the right woman came, I would have nay doubt. And I didn’t. I woke up in the dark, Claire sitting on my chest and cursing at me for bleeding to death, I said to myself ‘Jamie Fraser, for all ye canna see what she looks like, and for all she weighs as much as a good draft horse, this is the woman. She’s mended ye twice in as many hours, me lad; life amongst the MacKenzies being what it is, it might be as well to wed a woman as can stanch a wound and set broken bones.’ And that was all it took. She cursed at me once more and fixed me up right then and there. But I knew it, the truth of it. I loved her from the moment I saw her.”

He felt Bree hitch her breath and wipe a tear from her eye.

“Dinna cry lass, it’s no’ something to weep over.” He pleaded. “I meant it as a good story.”

“I know, I know.” Bree smiled, “But if it weren’t for me….Maybe, maybe things would’ve gone differently. Maybe, we could have been a family.”

“Brianna.” He stammered, sending chills down his spine and making Bree sit up straight in his arms once more. “Dinna be thinking that. We did what we did, because we loved you. Claire and I, neither one of us regret it or would do it differently.”

“What was grannie Ellen like?” Bree inquired a smile on her face. Jamie could tell she was trying to change the subject back to the conversation before, and he didn’t mind.

“She was a lot like Claire, from what I remember. Headstrong, stubborn, loyal, kind, a sharp and cunning mouth, the loveliest lady in all of Lallybroch. You would have loved her.” He felt the tears start to prick in his own eyes. “Since we dinna have those things ye call, photographs, I have no proof. But my Da, he always said my mam wore this dress…. It was an off-white, cream color, with flecks of blue and almost glistened in the sunlight. He said it was the most beautiful dress had ever seen a lass in.” Jamie stopped — memories of his own wedding day flashing through his mind. He laughed at the memory Claire stood before him as the cloak came off her shoulders.

“I can tell you are thinking, Da…. What about?” Bree chided, a grin on her face. Jem let out a small squeak as he rubbed his tiny hands over his eyes.

“I was just thinkin’ of how Da described my mam’s dress on their wedding day, because Claire wore something that I could say sounded just the same.” He said, barely audible, the picture of Claire standing before him on one of the most important days of his life at the forefront of his mind.

“It’s like it was meant to be from the start.” Bree started as they were interrupted by a small cry from the tiny human in Jamie’s arm. “I think… That the wee bairn and I should go back to bed. And Da, you should too. Mama doesn’t sleep well when you’re not with her. Hand him over.”

Jamie reached up, placing the small squirmy baby into his daughter’s arms. “There ye go, laddie.” He kissed the top of Jem’s head and then placed a kiss onto Bree’s forehead. “Off to bed, the both of ye.”

Bree nestled Jem close to her bosom, kissing him goodnight once more and rounded the corner. He watched the two of them, as they disappeared into the night, and took in the fresh mountain air.

After a few minutes, he could sense her presence behind him. He muttered something to himself in Gaelic as he turned his body towards the other side of the porch.

“Mo nighean donn… What are ye doing out of bed ye fool?” He asked as he stuck his hand out towards her. He heard her laugh as she took his hand and he pulled her close to his chest.

“I was lonely and rather cold without you in the bed, darling. I heard the voices from the window.” Claire huffed, settling comfortably onto his lap— her curls a mess atop his face.

“And?” Jamie laughed as he pushed her hair out his face.

“I came down to listen. You never told me that it sounded like your mom’s wedding attire on our wedding day… Jamie….” Claire bellowed. He reached down and wiped a tear from her face.

“Sassenach. Like I told Bree, I dinna have photographs but the colors were the same. At least how my Da described it and from what I remember.” Jamie reached forward tucking her hair behind her ear. “I wanted ye from the moment I saw ye.”

“I know that.” She breathed into his neck.

“And I loved ye since the moment I woke up in the dark looking up at yer face.”

“You told me that, a long time ago.” Claire spoke soflty still, kissing the base of his jaw.

“I meant it then and I mean it now.”He responded as he felt her lips along his jaw and then the base of his ear.

He closed his eyes as she reached her head slowly towards his face now, placing her lips softly on his.

“I may not have known your parents, but I know that they and Willie and Robert are all looking over you— and us.” Claire said, kissing him softly once more. “I would have loved to have met them once, to at least say thank you.”

That got his attention and he furrowed his eyebrows as he looked down and opened his eyes pulling Claire’s attention towards him. “And what would you have thanked them for, Sassenach?”

Claire smiled and kissed the top of his nose softly. “To say thank you, for having you, for you, James Fraser.”

Speechless, Jamie clutched Claire’s face and claimed her mouth on his. After a few minutes, breathless, he rested his forehead against hers, saying a silent thank you to his parents.

_‘Thank ye for sending me Claire and thank ye for Brianna. I wish ye could have been here to see them, to meet them, but thank ye.’_


	2. To Become a Fraser

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night Ellen and Brian Fraser meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @amanda5834 gave me the prompt: How about the night Ellen and Brian Fraser meet..Sneak away and then get pregnant to force marriage acceptance from brothers? 
> 
> I was a bit apprehensive about it because we don’t get much Brian and Ellen in the novels, so channeling them for a fic proved a bit difficult. I did write something but wasn’t sold on it. So then I kind of took the prompt and wrote “Family History”- but now, I feel bad because that is not at all what the prompt was asking. I’m just going to post the small little fic that actually fits the prompt and add it as a small flashback/continuation to the “Family History” timeline.

The hall was loud and boisterous. People from all clans were here this year for The Gathering. The food and drinks were ample, the clansmen and women all talking, laughing, and mingling. There was an energy in the room—he could sense the new beginnings, the reconnecting of old freinds, new business deals being made, and friends who were like family hearing the stories of the years spent apart. He scanned the room, starting from the left and making his way slowly across. Smiles and tears, laughter and hearty Scottish noises very popular amongst the people. And just as he was finishing his slow gaze across the crow, that’s when he saw her.

He saw her there, standing across the room in a group of women. Her grey eyes, auburn hair, the small dimple on the right side of her cheek that only appeared when she smiled. Her hair was in a bun, but two pieces falling down on either side of her face, framing the contours of her face. Her smile, the most radiant thing he had seen in the whole room. She had taken his breath away.

‘Ah Dhia’ he thought to himself ‘that lass is a bonny thing.’

He felt the nudge from Leslie next to him bringing his attention back to conversation at hand.

“Wouldn’t ye say the crops will do well this year, Brian?” Leslie asked as he turned to him and smiled.

“Aye, Yes. I suppose it willna be all that bad.” He replied as he took a sip of his rhenish.

“Brian, ye seem like yer mind is elsewhere.” Mack laughed as Leslie leaned into him, both men looking at Brian’s face as he started to turn bright red.

“I’m sorry..I just…” He stammered trying to turn get his attention back to the present and away from that lovely lass in the corner.

“We both see it, Brian. Dinna fash, she is a bonny lass. However, she’s apparently promised to another man. Doesna matter though till it’s official, aye? Go say hello, bring her a dram!” Mack chuckled as he pushed Brian out of their circle.

“And dinna come back until ye at least ken her name!” Leslie bellowed behind him. 

Brian nodded, taking a the final sip of his rhenish feeling brave.

He walked to the the drinks, filling two cups and slowly making his way across the room. By the time he got to the corner, her eyes were directly on his. Just a few feet away- a few more steps- that’s all he needed to do to close the distance between them.

It was like she had heard his thoughts. He watched as she reached over, whispering something in a friend’s ear and excused herself from her friends. She picked up her skirts, beelining for him at a pace that matched his racing heart.

She smiled as she met him by the wall away from the crowd. It was as if they were in their own little world.

He smiled as he felt the blood rush to his head and leaned against the stone to keep himself balanced. She smirked, cocking her head to the side, leaning against the wall right in front of him.

Brian stared- her beauty even more evident as she stood right in front of him. He felt awkward and like a love struck fool. He looked down at the glasses in his hand trying to form some kind of coherent statement.

He heard the lass laugh, crossing her arms across her chest, making her very voluptuous womanly assets even more appealing.

“Two drams. Are ye gonna drink them both or did ye bring one for me? I caught ye staring earlier and then ye leave yer friends and walk all the way over here but now ye canna look me in the eye.” The lass articulated as she reached a hand forward plucking a glass from his grasp giving him a few seconds to speak up. He stood— still frozen by her beauty and presence in front of him. “Looks like this might be a one sided conversation then. I’m Ellen. Ellen Mackenzie.”

Brian looked up and knew, his world had been forever changed. 

“I’m Brian, Brian Fraser. Would ye like to go somewhere? It’s a little stuffy in here, and I think I’d like to get to know ye better.” He said, offering Ellen his arm.

“I would like that, Brian.” She insisted as she took his arm. “I like yer name… Fraser. Strong Scottish name for a strong Scottish man.”

He leaned over kissing her cheek softly as he led them out the back from the Hall, wishing nothing more to make this Mackenzie a Fraser.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank YOU for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> As always thank YOU for reading!


End file.
